Stockton ground game sidelines Stark County

Monday

Nov 19, 2012 at 9:10 PMNov 19, 2012 at 9:12 PM

Blackhawks rush for 530 yards in 51-14 semifinal win

Mike Landis

For the second straight year, Stark County was denied a trip to Champaign.Led by a relentless running attack, the Stockton Blackhawks rolled to a 51-14 win over the Rebels in the Class 1A football semifinals Saturday. The Blackhawks thoroughly dominated the opening half and piled up 530 yards in total offense, sending Stark County to the sidelines at 10-3."If you would've told us in August that we were going to be in the semifinals for a chance to go to state with as many people as we lost, we probably would've been pretty pleased with that season," said Stark County coach Jade Noard. "But when you get this close, you can say you were going to be pleased but you still want to win that game."The Stark County defense dodged a couple of bullets early as Stockton drove deep into Rebel territory but came away empty. The Rebels stuffed T.J. Knutson on a fourth-and-1 play at the 13 on the opening drive, then Danny Berchtold picked off a fourth-and-goal Stockton pass in the end zone to halt the Blackhawks again.But once the Blackhawks got on the board, there was no stopping the hosts. Stockton scored on its next seven possessions, including 22 points in the second quarter to put the Rebels in a big hole at the break. Stockton ran 50 plays from scrimmage in the first half and possessed the football for nearly 20 minutes, gaining 267 yards. The Rebels managed just 12 offensive plays, one first down, 16 yards and turned the ball over twice."I thought offensively if we would've played like that during the playoffs, we wouldn't have been here today," said Noard. "We were pretty inept."Stark County's offense came to life on the opening possession of the second half, marching 86 yards in just seven plays. Berchtold put the Rebels on the board with a 23-yard run to cut the deficit to 22-7."If we start the game like that, who knows what happens," said Noard. "You just can't start the game like we did. You have to start it with the kind of intensity we did to start the second half, but then we kick to them and we couldn't stop them."Stockton answered the Rebels with a 10-play, 64-yard drive to push the margin to 28-7. The Blackhawks tacked on three more scores to make it 51-7, and the Rebels concluded the scoring with a 4-yard Berchtold run.Three Stockton running backs cracked 100 yards in the win, led by T.J. Knutson with 200 yards, followed by Logan Staver 139 yards and Colton Broshous 108 yards. Stockton converted 13 times on third down and three times on fourth down."Every time we put them in a spot, they made the play and we didn't," said Noard. "That was the story of the first half and really eventually the game."Justin Kohler finished his high school career going 7 of 19 through the air for 85 yards, while Berchtold had 104 yards rushing and both Rebel scores."I don't think we put our best foot forward, but Stockton is a good football team. It's going to take a heckuva squad from the south to beat them," said Noard. "They just keep coming out you. You have to make those stops three or four times in a row and we weren't able to do that."Noard reflected on his team's two straight trips to the state semifinals."Last year after the game, we got beat 28-0, and I just felt like there was not much we could do," said Noard. "This year is a little bit different. We got beat by more, but we just did not play as well as we could've played. I don't know if we could've hung with him, but I know we could've stayed closer than 51-14.""A month from now, a year from now we'll look back and be able to think about this run and how good it was," added the SC coach. "There's not a lot of positives today. It's something we'll be able to look back on but as for right now, there's a lot of disappointment."The Blackhawks will meet Maroa-Forsyth in the 1A title game at 10 a.m. Friday in Champaign. Maroa-Forsyth advanced by beating Concord Triopia 40-12.